Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/297

TENDKILS IN SOME CUCURBITACEAE. 255 sections were prepared through the nodes to study the course of the vascular bundles. In other pieces of stem were macerated in a suitable medium. In some cases both methods were tried.

A few words may be said about maceration. Several chemical reagents were tried, but none was found satisfactory. Even boiling in tap water was found too drastic. Ultimately the pieces of stems with their attached organs were left in ordinary tap-water for a number of days—about five in summer and about ten in winter—and then the vascular skeleton was prepared by teasing out the softer tissues.

The following species were studied. The methods adopted are also indicated.


 * 1. Benincasa cerifera Savi. Maceration.
 * 2. Lagenaria vulgaris Scringe. Maceration.
 * 3. Citrullus vulgaris Schrad. Free-hand sections.
 * 4. Trichosaothes anguina Linn. Serial sectioning.
 * 5. Trichosanthes dioica Roxb. Maceration.
 * 6. Luffa acutangula Roxb. Serial sectioning and maceration.
 * 7. Luffa pentandra Roxb. Maceration.
 * 8. Cucumis melo Linn. Serial sectioning and maceration.
 * 9. Cucumis momordica Roxb. Freehand sections.
 * 10. Momordica echinata Linn. Serial sectioning and maceration.
 * 11. Momordica charantia Linn. Serial sectioning.
 * 12. Cucurbita maxima Duchesne. Maceration.

Of these species Tondera has figured the vascular connections of 1, 2 and 8 ; while Muller has figured the tendril-anatomy of No. 4.

After this preliminary account we may pass on to the details in the species investigated.

In the axil of the leaf we find a row of four different organs. From the left, we have a two-armed tendril, a vegetative bud which sometimes developes into a shoot, a flower and lastly a glandular structure standing erect and with margins rolled inwards, resembling a rudimentary leaf. (Fig. 1.)

The stem is five-angled as usual in the family. In mature specimens the inner and the outer rings of vascular bundles are very near each other and very nearly merge into one ring. (Fig. 2)